Politics Archives

Wednesday

16 Dec 2020

Will the first vaccinated Brits have some immunity by Christmas?

So, Christmas, it seems, will not be cancelled after all. The government has decided instead to tackle fears of a January spike in cases with tougher messaging, telling people that just because they will have the legal right to mix for five days next week doesn’t necessarily mean they ought to avail themselves of that freedom. In other words, we’re not changing the rules, but we’d really rather you didn’t take advantage of them. But could the vaccinations which have already been performed save us from a post-Christmas spike? The Pfizer vaccine – the only one being given to the general public so far – is designed to be given

James Forsyth

Keir Starmer’s late criticism of Christmas easing

Boris Johnson and Keir Starmer both assumed that today was the last PMQs before Christmas, suggesting that they don’t expect Parliament to be sitting next Wednesday. Their exchanges were particularly unenlightening this week. Starmer argued that his concerns about the tier system had been justified by the fact that cases are rising in three quarters of tier 2 areas and half of tier 3. Johnson again attacked him for abstaining on the vote on the tier system. Interestingly, Starmer set himself fully against the Christmas easing calling it ‘the next big mistake’ and approvingly quoted the joint Health Service Journal / British Medical Journal editorial, which called for a ban

Isabel Hardman

Tory MPs are anxious about a post-Christmas lockdown

Boris Johnson told Prime Minister’s Questions today that the meeting of the four nations of the UK ended with the leaders agreeing to keep the relaxation of rules over Christmas. He said there had been ‘unanimous agreement’ at the meeting that ‘we should proceed in principle with the existing regulations because we don’t want to criminalise people’s long-made plans’. But not long after the meeting broke up, the Welsh and Scottish governments announced they would be producing their own much tougher guidance. In Wales, the number of households who can mix will be cut to two rather than three, and the country will then go back into lockdown from 28

James Forsyth

Boris’s Heathrow runway problem returns

It looked like the courts had solved Boris Johnson’s third Heathrow runway problem when they ruled it illegal in February because of the actions the government is committed to on climate change. But this morning, the Supreme Court has overturned the Court of Appeals’ decision. This means that Heathrow can now seek planning permission for a third runway. There’s a long way from seeking planning permission to the bulldozers, which Johnson has promised to lie down in front of, moving in. There will undoubtedly be more legal challenges and court cases before this is finally resolved one way or the other; the government first backed a third runway at Heathrow

Tuesday

15 Dec 2020

Katy Balls

Four-nations Christmas Covid truce hangs in balance

It’s become a regular refrain to hear that Brexit talks have been extended. Now the same applies to negotiations over the Christmas Covid rule relaxation. After various scientific advisers warned the UK government against going ahead with its planned five day relaxation of the rules (which would see three household permitted to gather together), representatives for the four nations discussed the policy on a call this evening. The result? No decision as of yet. As things stand, there has been no agreed change to the rules. Instead one source on the call tells the BBC: ‘There was broad recognition commitment has been made to people and they will expect us to

Freddy Gray

Is Joe Biden a ‘Democrat In Name Only’?

28 min listen

As the Electoral College confirms Joe Biden’s victory, Freddy Gray talks to Jacob Heilbrunn, editor of The National Interest, about whether or not the president-elect, with his centrist appeal, is really a ‘DINO’ – ‘Democrat In Name Only’.

Steerpike

The Cabinet Office’s gender pay gap embarrassment

Today, Whitehall departments published their gender pay gaps, as part of a government commitment to ‘transparency’ and its drive to encourage equal pay among the sexes. The gender pay gap scheme is run by the Government Equalities Office, a branch of the Civil Service which sits inside the Cabinet Office, and which is responsible for forcing private companies across the land to publish their own pay gaps every year. Mr S wonders though if there might be some red faces in the Civil Service after this year’s release. Although the GEO did not release statistics about its own pay gap, its parent department, the Cabinet Office, did. And as its

Ross Clark

The looming Covid unemployment catastrophe

Just how widely is the economic pain from Covid-19 being felt? Still surprisingly little, according to the latest employment figures from the Office of National Statistics (ONS). The absence of an explosion in unemployment goes some way to explaining why the lockdowns and restrictions have been accepted so meekly by the population at large. That said, unemployment is beginning to rise significantly now. There are now 819,000 fewer payroll employees compared with the start of the crisis in February. The employment rate stands at 75.2 per cent, 0.9 per cent down on a year ago, and the unemployment rate is 4.9 per cent, up 1.2 per cent. Still, this is

Isabel Hardman

Starmer piles on pressure over the Covid Christmas amnesty

Sir Keir Starmer has called on Boris Johnson to hold an emergency Cobra meeting, arguing that the current plans to ease coronavirus restrictions over Christmas should be reviewed. The Labour leader said this afternoon that his party would support the government if it decides that tougher measures are needed. He stops short of calling for the Christmas easing to be cancelled, presumably because he’d rather not be the political grinch in this case. But he is still pushing Johnson. In a letter to the Prime Minister, Starmer argues that the current tier system has not been working and that the government cannot ignore the rising cases. He writes: It has become increasingly clear

Isabel Hardman

Could Christmas still be cancelled?

13 min listen

The government is coming under pressure to reverse the Christmas relaxation of Covid rules, with two of the country’s leading health journals – the Health Service Journal and the British Medical Journal – jointly calling for a rethink. Keir Starmer, meanwhile, has called on Boris Johnson to hold an emergency COBRA meeting to review the plans. Will the government cancel Christmas? Isabel Hardman speaks to James Forsyth and Katy Balls.

Nick Tyrone

Boris Johnson has allowed himself to be snookered by the EU

The UK-EU trade negotiations have heated up again, albeit from a very cold state. Boris seems to have conceded ground on the ‘evolution clause’ to the European Union, making a path to an agreement on the level playing field issues at least plausible. The UK has accepted that divergence should come at some cost — although the details of how that cost should be managed appear to still be a live issue. With that comes the last hurdle: fishing. Boris Johnson has allowed himself to be snookered by the EU. More than anything else I could point to, leaving fishing to the very end demonstrates the folly of Johnson’s overall

Jonathan Saxty

Was the EU ever going to offer Britain a good deal?

The announcement that Brexit negotiations are set to continue will no doubt alarm Brexiteers who fear compromise, sell-out and fudge. In fairness to Brussels however, they set out their stall early on and stuck to the script. The EU is unwilling – as they see it – to let Britain have its cake and eat it, by having large access to the EU’s market while not being a member or leaving the club and not ‘paying a price’. This might explain what could otherwise be seen as an unduly recalcitrant attitude. It also explains why any deal which the EU agrees to is likely to be on its terms. The

James Forsyth

Will the relaxation of the Christmas Covid rules be reversed?

The plans of the UK and devolved governments to ease restrictions over Christmas are coming under increasing criticism. Matt Hancock faced repeated questioning last night on whether this was wise given the new strain that he thinks might be behind the more rapid spread of the virus in London and the south east. This morning, the British Medical Journal and the Health Service Journal have called in a joint editorial for the government to scrap the Christmas easing entirely and ban all household mixing this Christmas. The two editors write that ‘we believe the government is about to blunder into another major error that will cost many lives. If our political

Debbie Hayton

The damning verdict on puberty blocker treatment for trans children

If the Keira Bell judgment did not sufficiently expose the shortcomings of the Gender Identity Development Service (GIDS) – the only NHS clinic in England for children presenting with gender dysphoria – then another recent study published after that key ruling must surely now trigger a full-blown inquiry. The study followed the progress of 44 children referred by GIDS for puberty blockers when they were aged between 12 and 15. All except one – 98 per cent of the cohort – progressed to cross sex-hormones. The lead author was Dr Polly Carmichael, GIDS director. The research has yet to be peer reviewed, but let’s be clear: this was a study of patients at GIDS, and the

Monday

14 Dec 2020

Ross Clark

Should we worry about the new variant of Covid-19?

Should we worry about the emergence of a new variant of SARS-CoV-2, the virus which causes Covid-19? News of the new variant – which, it seems, might transmit more easily than previous versions – was the big surprise of Matt Hancock’s statement to the Commons this afternoon. The other big announcement – that London and parts of Essex and Hertfordshire will be going into Tier 3 – was a foregone conclusion. As I wrote here in May, the SARS-CoV-2 virus has already mutated once into a form that might be more transmissible. This could possibly explain why Europe and North America have found it harder to contain the virus than have

Isabel Hardman

Matt Hancock’s Christmas plea

Tonight’s coronavirus press conference was very awkward for the government. It highlighted the bizarre tension between what is happening with the virus, and what ministers have decided is feasible in terms of measures to contain it. While Matt Hancock and the government scientists set out the ‘exponential rises’ in cases in London, the emergence of a new variant of the virus which seems to be spreading rapidly, and the risks for the NHS in January and February, they were all unable to follow these bleak lines with anything other than a plea for people to choose to do as little as possible over Christmas. On Wednesday, London and other parts

James Forsyth

Hancock warns of a new Covid strain

Matt Hancock has just announced that London and the surrounding area will be put into Tier 3 from one minute past midnight on Wednesday. Hancock said that government scientists had identified a new strain of Covid that they think might be behind the more rapid spread of the virus in the south east in recent weeks. Alarming as this sounds, he did emphasise that it doesn’t seem to cause more serious illness and there’s no reason to think it won’t respond to the vaccine. The news of this strain does raise further questions about the Christmas easing. The risk now is that as people head home for the holidays they

James Kirkup

The madness of the Covid Christmas amnesty

London will enter Tier 3 Covid restrictions on Wednesday, because people are mixing too freely and thus spreading a deadly virus. Next week, those restrictions will vanish for five days, allowing people to mix more freely, thus spreading a deadly virus. The paragraph above captures just how frankly stupid the Christmas Covid amnesty policy is. Much of 2020 has been a real-life experiment in epidemiology, proving – not that it’s necessary – that when you relax restrictions put in place to slow the spread of a disease, that disease spreads more quickly. That was the story of the summer and early autumn: England’s second lockdown was an inevitable and logical

Lloyd Evans

Why I’m backing Corbyn’s ‘peace and justice’ project

He’s back. A year after losing a second general election in a row, Jeremy Corbyn has launched his ‘Project for Peace and Justice’ with a video on YouTube. He appears in a natty off-white jacket, with a tinge of blue, like a referee at the Henley Regatta. Speaking in a low, measured voice, as if reading a story to children, he recites an inventory of global problems which he proposes to solve. Behind him is the project’s slick new signage. The P and the J form an elongated oval, in smart white-striped livery, like the classic layout of the 1970s Scalextric track. This attractive piece of artwork must have cost

Robert Tombs

Emmanuel Macron’s great Brexit gamble

There is an intriguing pattern in our relationship with European integration. A Frenchman vetoed our attempt to join. A Frenchman threatens to veto our attempt to leave – or at least to leave with an agreement. General de Gaulle said we were too remote from Europe to join. Emmanuel Macron says we are too close to Europe to leave. I think de Gaulle got it right. I hope Macron doesn’t turn out to be right too, so that we end up stuck half in and half out, neither ‘at the heart of Europe’ nor ‘global Britain’. How individuals and nations react to the project of European federalism is determined not